Back in 1972 my sons, Curt and Mike, used to help me work
on my rocket cars. When their school vacations rolled around,
Ed Ballinger and I would take them out on the road with us,
which was quite the adventure for them, seeing as how Curt
was 14, and Mike was 16. We'd travel the racing circuit from
one end of the United States to the other. Curt expressed
the desire to actually drive the car when he got older, but
because of the dangers of high-speed racing, I had different
ideas.
(Pictured
at the left) Here is where it all started. Ky testing
his rocket pack on him self in the early seventies.
I was at a scuba shop one day when an idea hit me like a
lightening bolt to the head. It happened when I noticed this
aluminum backpack in the corner, being used to hold scuba
tanks.
I immediately thought to myself, "Hey, what if a guy
was to build a hydrogen peroxide rocket backpack?"
Now don't ask me why that question popped into my head, because
what I'd ever do with it, I really had no idea, but? I decided
to build it anyway, before somebody else did. (Whenever I
get a design idea, I always act on it right away while it's
fresh in my mind, since I don't use blueprints of any kind.)
I didn't let on to anyone what my latest little project out
in the shop was, and I wasted no time in starting on it. Because
of the high heat of decomposing hydrogen peroxide, and the
weight of steel, it was necessary for me to use stainless
steel, so I machined the small 250-lb. thrust rocket from
that, and then used an aerospace high-pressure vessel for
the nitrogen tank. That was a good beginning, but I needed
aerospace hardware that wasn't readily available in the Twin
Cities area, so I flew out to California to several surplus
shops I knew of. Incredibly, it was actually cheaper for me
to make the trip than it would have been for me to buy the
items I needed brand new. After rummaging through several
places, I found all the components I had been looking for,
and headed back home to complete my latest invention. It ended
up taking me about three weeks to get the backpack built,
and by the time I finished, we were in the middle of a very
long, cold Minnesota winter. There I was, all excited to test
this thing out, and it had to be cold and icy.
I decided I wasn't gonna let that stop me, though, so I got
on the horn to Ed and another friend of mine, T. J. Snow,
and asked them both to come over and give me a hand firing
the rocket. Let me tell you that even a true Minnesotan doesn't
come out of a good hibernation without good reason, so I gave
them both just enough of a description to peak their interests,
and it worked. My plea for help was answered. They both arrived
in a very short time, and we headed out to my shop for the
big "unveiling." Of course, as usual, I had a plan,
which was to strap the backpack to the telephone pole out
in front of my house for its first test.
Just as we were doing so, Ed says to me, "What's the
matter, Ky? Don't you trust your own workmanship? Are you
scared of it or what?"
I looked up at him, caught him with a big smirk on his face,
and quickly un strapped it. "You know, Ed," I replied,
"You're right. The heck with this; go ahead and strap
it on ME, man."
"Ky, I was only kidding," he said, somewhat surprised
by my sudden change of heart.
But I continued, "No. Let's just do it. C' mon,"
so he complied with my wish, and onto my back it went. Nicely,
tightly, secured. I have to admit that while I was playing
the cool cucumber, I was more than a little apprehensive about
how this was going to turn out, but I never let on.
"Well," he asked, "Now what? Where are you
going to go with that thing?"
I looked up and down the road, but that just didn't seem like
a good idea at the time. Then I got my next brilliant idea.
Strutting like a peacock, I walked from the telephone pole
over to the long stretch of sidewalk out front that just so
happened to have a real thin coat of ice on it. "Right
here!" I announced. "I'm going right down this sidewalk,
guys. Are ya ready?"
"You're the man, Ky. Just go for it when you're ready,
buddy. We'll be right here!" Ed said, and they both snickered
as they followed along behind me. Traffic was cruising right
along, and there I was-a grown man standing on an icy sidewalk
in the dead of winter with this never before seen rocket-powered
backpack strapped onto my back. Did I care? No. I was ready.
I said, "Okay, here goes nothing guys," and I slowly
opened the hand-held throttle valve.
The hydrogen peroxide flowed into the rocket chamber, and
all of a sudden this ear piercing sound came out of the nozzle,
and the rocket came to life and started pushing me down the
sidewalk. It felt like a giant man pushing on my back. I had
to crouch down so it wouldn't literally push me over. Those
guys started screaming with laughter. I couldn't BELIEVE how
much power this thing had, and how well it worked! I was gone.
That was it. One of the most awesome little rockets ever made,
and I had invented it, and it was FUN. I knew if I thought
this was fun, my son, Curt, a natural hockey player and darn
good skater, was going to go absolutely nuts when he got a
load of it, so I literally ran into the house to get him to
come out and check it out. He was game, no problem.
Instead of using the sidewalk again, we decided to give this
thing a try on something a LOT more fun-the small, frozen
lake out back. Curt tied on his hockey skates, and we strapped
the backpack snuggly onto his back. I showed him how to work
the throttle, and gave him some last minute instructions,
and he was ready. He actually added his own twist to the performance
by first skating as fast as he could, and then he crouched
down and slowly opened up the throttle. I'm telling' you;
he took off like a human rocket, and he actually made it all
the way across the lake before he ran out of rocket fuel.
I had never seen anyone move that fast on a pair of skates,
and I thought to myself how the neighbors on the other side
must have been wondering what kind of an unknown speed skater
lived in the house across the way, and just how the heck he
had just done what he did. He looked like a cannon ball being
shot from a cannon. It was totally cool, really, really loud,
and I was in awe standing there watching my son having the
time of his life.
He skated back with the biggest smile on his face, and excitedly
announced to me, "That was AWESOME. Hey, Dad, I want
to do this on roller skates at drag strips!"
Ah HAH. What a terrific idea. Curt really had something there,
and he looked really good while doing it. Ed and T. J. agreed,
so I told him I'd definitely check into it. We got everything
packed away in the shop, and I thanked those guys up and down
for all their help. That was a very memorable cold, winter's
day, to say the least. As soon as I got back inside, I headed
right into my office and called my booking agent, Duane Nichols.
I told him what we had, and asked whether or not he thought
it would be possible to add Curt to our bookings at the same
drag strips where we ran our rocket car. He said he'd definitely
see what he could do, and he'd let me know. Curt was as anxious
as I was to hear back from Duane, and it didn't take long.
He called me back the next day with great news.
"Ky, sight unseen, I've already got a number of track
owners who want you guys right away, but they want to know
how fast Curt can go."
Well, I really didn't KNOW how fast he could go, but I quickly
replied, "Trust me, Duane. He'll go faster than anyone
has ever gone on roller skates before."
He replied with, "Okay, you're right, you're right. I'm
convinced. Just one more thing, though, Ky. What are you going
to call him? He's gonna need some sort of a show name."
I said, "Hmmm…good point. Okay, wait a second,"
and just then I remembered an action-packed movie called "Rollerball,"
so I came up with the name, and answered, "Captain Roller
Ball."
Duane loved it, and told me, "Wonderful, I'll get you
guys booked, no problem."
I'll never forget the look on Curt's face when I told him
he was now going to become the famous "Captain Roller
Ball." He was in Heaven, and now neither of us could
wait for winter to end. It was one of the longest winter's
I can remember, but we stayed busy preparing. Curt took this
opportunity very seriously, and he spent many hours practicing
skating with the 40-lb. backpack on his back until he learned
how to completely balance with all that extra weight.
As soon as the snow melted, he practiced in the school parking
lot making slow speed runs with his school buddies looking
on. It wasn't long until he made a high-speed run before his
teacher and all of his classmates, and they all thought he
was really something. I couldn't have been happier for him,
because I could clearly see how much enjoyment he took in
this very unique sport of his, and I knew he'd become somewhat
of a celebrity because it was just something so different.
As Curt practiced, I had my friend, Jim Deist, sew up a yellow
and blue cape, and a flashy silver fire suit, just like the
top-fuel racers use. This was back in the early 70s, so there
was no such thing as roller blades back then. He had to use
the old-fashioned, four-wheel roller skates, and for night
appearances, I fastened flashlights underneath them so he
could see any debris that might be in his path.
His first "professional" appearance was at an annual
event called October fest over in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The
racetrack is fairly large, and the event is well known and
attended by thousands of people. When we arrived, there was
a grandstand FULL of "festers," and he was fighting
chilly nerves on a very chilly October day. I gave him a pep
talk and got him as fired up as possible, and he hit the track,
uncertain of what lie ahead. He had his fire suit, cape, and
helmet on, and the crowd was totally into it. They weren't
sure what exactly they were looking at, but it definitely
looked interesting, and they were behind him all the way.
He took his position, started to skate, and when he hit the
throttle he was clocked in at 30 mph on his first run. He
received his very first standing ovation from the crowd that
crisp, cold October day, and from then on, he WAS Captain
Roller Ball, the show man. After that, no matter where we
traveled, the rocket backpack and my son were the talk of
the town. People found Curt's stunt to be more than a little
odd, but very, very fascinating. It wasn't long before he
earned his place in the record books with speeds in excess
of 50 mph.
The best part of the whole deal for Curt was that he started
earning $350 per appearance, which was a heck of a lot of
money for a 14-year-old kid. By the time he was making all
his appearances, I had decided it was time to start my own
booking company, since I was building rocket-powered vehicles
for other people nearly every winter. I called it Space Age
Racing, and expanded on not only building cars, but then got
the bookings for them, as well. In return for my services,
the vehicle's owners would pay me 15% of their gross profit.
So you do, of course, realize that even though Curt was my
son, he still had to pay me the 15% booking fees for all the
shows I lined up for him. After all, I was teaching him responsibility,
and how to be as "enterprising" a guy as I was.
Lessons like that just don't come cheap, ya know. All kidding
aside, I was very proud of him, and I knew he appreciated
the opportunity I had given him. He started receiving a lot
of national attention through magazines, newspapers, and television;
news of Captain Roller Ball traveled fast.
It just so happened we were racing down in the New York area
when we received an invitation to appear on the "Mike
Douglas" show, which back then was the equivalent of
"The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson." Since we
were in the area anyway, and this was just a wonderful opportunity,
we accepted the offer and headed down to Philadelphia for
the taping. We were thrilled at meeting celebrities, and were
honored to learn we'd be appearing with Mike Connors and comedian,
David Brenner. Now for our segment, Mike actually suggested
we also have David Brenner try out the rocket roller skates
live on the show. Man, for some reason to me that just sounded
like an accident waiting to happen, so I asked David if he
would like to take a practice shot at it first. He said he
was a darn good skater, and he really didn't need to practice.
He just looked at that small rocket backpack and laughed in
confidence. I had it figured differently, though. He looked
to be having much too much fun entertaining a couple of girls
he had just met, which is why I think he declined. So, as
the segment was about to go live, I left him with a little
advice.
I told him, "David, whatever you do, do NOT fire the
rocket wide open until you start skating first."
"Oh, don't worry. I won't," he assured me.
While I had been talking to David, Curt had gotten ready.
He put on the rocket, skated down the alley in back of the
studio, and fired it. They had a couple of guys holding a
big mattress at the end of the block to stop him from flying
through the intersection. He looked great, it looked easy,
and everyone was impressed with his performance. That was
Curt…now it was David's turn.
We got him all strapped in, and right off the bat, he started
joking around with Mike by saying, "How far is it to
the Manhattan toll bridge?"
Mike replied, "Here, I have some coins," and handed
him 75 cents.
Just then, David began jumping up and down on the skates,
and started to pull the lever that let the rocket fuel flow
into the motor. He let just enough in to make the motor go
pop, pop, pop, and then started to dance up and down jokingly
like the rocket didn't have enough power to push him. From
there, he did exactly what I told him not to do. He powered
the rocket wide open without skating first. The rocket literally
catapulted him straight up into the air, arms just flailing
everywhere, and he came down hard, flat on his face. It was
a miracle he wasn't seriously hurt.
We all gathered around to provide medical attention, if needed,
when David rolled over and said, "Am I there yet?"
That was so typical of him…everyone, of course, burst
out laughing, and when it was all over with, the producer
said it was definitely a very entertaining, good segment.
I know I'll certainly never forget it, and neither will Curt,
who continued to appear at racetracks for the next couple
of years thrilling the crowds with his high-speed antics.
He was never injured, never fell, and will go down in history
as the first rocket-powered roller skater, setting the speed
record at 52mph in 1976. I'm proud to say that Captain Roller
Ball lives on.